Copyright Mick Emerson click for larger image
Thanks to John W for the poster scan
Neil Woodvine tells us: "Due to an error all the
posters had the wrong date - 22nd May and,
invariably, the first '2' was inked out to show the
correct date"
Dave Haslam remembers: "It was a dining room
at a student hall of residence. 300 people there I
reckon. I was ten rows from the front. It was a
ramshackle affair, Ian left the stage at least
once".
Ticket
scan thanks to Simon Parker
There are three different recordings of
this concert: a soundboard recording and two
audience tapes. See below
Songs performed:
01. Ceremony
02. Shadowplay
03. A Means To An End
04. Passover
05. New Dawn Fades
06. Twenty Four Hours
07. Transmission
08. Disorder
09. Isolation
10. Decades *
11. Digital.
Joy Division used this concert to debut one of their
new songs "Ceremony".
During Decades Ian stumbled, and had to be helped
off stage while the rest of the band played on. He
recovered enough to return for an encore: "Digital".
Copyright Martin Hardy
- click for larger image
The official soundboard recording was
released on the Still double LP which included all
eleven songs despite Twenty Four Hours not being
credited on the sleeve. The original boxed tape
issue from circa 1986 also includes Twenty Four
Hours, but later CD issues and reissues don’t. The
beginning of Ceremony is cut on this recording due
to an error.
Sound quality: 9/9
The first audience tape includes the complete
concert and this two song soundcheck:
01. Ceremony
02. Decades.
Appx. duration: 45 mins (concert) + 10 minutes
(soundcheck).
Sound quality 7-8/9 (concert) 6-7/9 (soundcheck).
The soundcheck was recorded from the other side of a
door so it sounds more distant and muffled.
The second audience tape surfaced in 2009,
thanks to Andrew Lagowski, This recording is missing
24 Hours, Transmission and Disorder. In addition
Ceremony is missing some of the intro and Decades is
incomplete.
The sound quality of this tape is poor – 3/9
Bootlegs:
Despite being released officially on the Still album
the concert has appeared on a few bootlegs:
Out Of The room LP featured
Ceremony and Decades from the soundcheck
Ceremony
LP featured the whole concert and was also released
as Live LP
Disorder
LP featured the whole concert
Closer Live
One Track, Decades
High Hall Birmingham in 1981. 
(C) Copyright Birmingham 81 and reproduced here with
permission
In January 2014 the, renamed, Chaimberlain
Hall was demolished having been empty for six years.
The Vale student accommodation was built on the
site.
(C) Copyright Birmingham Post and reproduced here with permission
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Setlist thanks to Schizo-Archives.com
and O Eterno
Copyright Mick Emerson click for larger images
David Pryke was there:
I went as an 18 year old student from the near
by Aston University. Joy Division were known as
the coolest band on the circuit but I was only
familiar (so I thought) with the single
Transmission.
A few memories - they were very very late! We
hung around for a long time listening to ACR
sound check. A mixed audience of students, punks
and rockers (think they call the latter metalers
nowadays).
Remember ACR doing a cracking set (I think at
the time I enjoyed this more, but it paled
rather following the news later in the month).
Someone had recorded me a few avant guard
numbers the summer before but had not put down
the play list. I'd sussed out Crass, Tubeway
Army, Magazine and the Shadows! But he'd said
there were a couple of special tracks at the end
that I hadn't a clue who performed them. I was
pretty impressed and played them to mates at the
time who were equally impressed.
It wasn't until I heard the first few chords of
Shadowplay at High Hall that I realised who the
mystery group were. The other track also played
on the night and one of my faves was New Dawn
Fades - Moby played this at a recent gig at
Brixton Academy as homage to Ian Curtis - I was
the only member of the (generally young)
audience who appreciated it.
The other memory is slam dancing during the
faster numbers. Not very cool!
These photos surfaced
in 2019 as Part of Peter Hook's Signature
Collection auction at Omega
Auctions. They were originally bought,
from the Birmingham Cards & Posters
collectibles shop about a
week after the concert.
Copyright owner unknown.
Many thanks to Lou Baeza who won the auction and
provided us
with these scans.
Copyright Mick Emerson click for larger image
Flyer courtesy of Pat Teasdale and Neil
Woodvine
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